Distant From Ourselves
by ArdaSynle
Summary: Zuko and Tai have sailed from the known land in the Avatar universe to discover a new land, where they will encounter new races of people, and new challenges. This story will contain themes on what it means to be human and what it means to be a person and is therefore rate K as some children might find it unnerving. (was called Second Chance)
1. Chapter 1

AN: This story is going to radically alter the avatar universe, Be warned! It will contain only memories of avatar characters. Even Zuko will be a memory of himself until he can find himself again. This story will contain not only bending but also magic. The story also has no sexual themes, nor are any planned thus far. This story has a poorly written prequel that does deal with the how everything came to be in the story! 6.7/10 would recommend! Check it out on my account, or don't. Continue reading the following story in absolute decision or continue not at all.

 _My life closed twice before its close;  
It yet remains to see  
If Immortality unveil  
A third event to me,  
So huge, so hopeless to conceive,  
As these that twice befell.  
Parting is all we know of heaven,  
And all we need of hell._

\- Emily Dickinson

Chapter 1.

It was the same pain he felt all those months ago, and many times since. Only this time he thought it was real. This was the only time he had experienced the pain in the same agony as the first time. But Zuko didn't cry out as he had last time; there was nothing left in him that cared anymore. He didn't understand how it worked, but Zuko knew the pain was because one of his family had died. It felt the same way when he plunged his sword into Azula, in what felt like another lifetime, but he knew was probably less than a year. _It was probably uncle_ , Zuko thought detached. He had heard reports of Iroh's alcoholism before he left the Earth Kingdom, and had expected this for some time. Zuko was about to surrender himself to his pessimistic musings when he saw Tai stir from his nap. The kid was the only barrier between Zuko and the pit of blackness and misery that threatened to swallow him his every moment. Since leaving the Earth Kingdom by canoe into the unknown east, they had spent every moment together, mostly because there was nowhere to get away out at sea. Even after expanding their canoe to a raft the size of his old river steamer and putting up walls, there was still no privacy. Zuko didn't much care because there wasn't much to do that he needed to hide. Zuko felt a pang of guilt thinking of Tai, his life had been, to put it gently, worse than Zuko's.

Tai's early childhood and family were a mystery. Zuko had rescued him from a village ravaged from fire, both of what Zuko presumed were Tai's parents were dead, as well as everyone else. Zuko shivered at the thought, the memory of searching the charred village for survivors was burned into his brain as surely as the fire had burned through the lives of all save one in the village. After being rescued, Tai had remained unconscious for several nights and woke on the brink of death. While Tai had a speedy physical recovery, he had another problem: his memory had been damaged. As far as Zuko knew, this was not entirely uncommon in Earth kingdom, when houses burned, smoke-poison fills up the poorly ventilated stone houses, often killing those inside. And so Tai remembered nothing of his past life, and he struggled to remember new information. Zuko sighed as Tai stirred again. Zuko had tried to take Tai to Ba Sing Se where he would be safe, but before Tai left on the ferries, Zuko had felt a stir of energy in the boy, and _knew_ that Tai had to be a firebender. All the signs had been there. So Zuko set off to the closest respectable fire colony, New Ozai, where he knew Tai would be safe. Zuko had been particularly agitated the day they arrived, and inadvertently got them arrested for unruly behavior. He didn't really care that he was arrested until he found out Azula was in New Ozai too. Zuko knew Azula would torture Tai, because Azula always destroyed things he cared about. So, he broke out of prison to find and distract Azula for a long enough time for Tai to get away, but when he found Azula, she had just slain the avatar, Aang. Believe it or not, it was important to not kill Aang because the next Avatar _would not be a pacifist._ Azula being in new Ozai was too much for Zuko to handle and blind fury overcame him. He slew her in that very moment. But in doing so he abandoned everything. Zuko would never be able to see Iroh, or the Fire Nation again. Every decision and action in his life was in vain at the moment his blade struck Azula's heart. Every action except for saving Tai, who now would have been killed on charge of being a firebender or associating with Zuko. So Zuko found Tai, and they fled together as fugitives of every nation. They were alone. And soon they ran out of places to run, and Zuko's mind was closing in on him. _I killed my own sister._ It was of little consultation that Azula would gladly have done the same for him. So Zuko decided he had to leave civilization all together and Tai had decided to join him, for they were family at that point. But about a moon cycle after setting out, Tai became horribly ill and lost all ability to speak, even after recovering from the illness. Now to communicate Tai had use hand signals, which were good for basic communication, but for more complex ideas, Tai wrote in sand that Zuko had brought up from the ocean. They now spent most of their time sleeping, fishing, or Zuko would try to educate Tai, which turned out to be frustratingly difficult due to Tai's memory problems. As time went on they expanded their canoe into a raft using driftwood and wood from uninhabited islets and cays.

After these months, with no contact to outside civilization, the (painful) reminder that people still exist outside him and Tai was strange. Zuko was beginning to wonder if the sages were wrong about the size of the world, which he had learned, was round. As Zuko was pondering such things, the quiet lapping of the wrinkled sea crescendoed into the steady oscillations of large rolling waves. At first, they were no taller than his forearm, but as the familiar royal blue transitioned to a steely green cobalt, the swells slowly tripled in sized. The waves' paths converged, obviating their direction.

Zuko got up to wake Tai; the increasing size in waves could mean two things: a storm was coming, or they were nearing land. Tai needed to be awake for both events. By the time Tai was up, the raft was turning parallel to the waves, which would tear it apart or capsize it. So Zuko and Tai used makeshift oars to steer the boat back into the waves. Between their oaring and the waves' movement, they were cruising much faster than they ever had on their raft. After nearly an hour, both Zuko and Tai were exhausted from rowing, but the currents finally changed. They were now heading perpendicular to the waves from before. Zuko had a realization dawn upon him _we are in a longshore current... that means there's Land!_ Suddenly reinvigorated with new energy, he told Tai to keep rowing, but now against the current.

The ordeal was exhausting for both of them, but soon enough, the water was only up to his knees, and Zuko got into the water and dragged their raft. At some point, land came into view, and Tai clapped once and beamed happily. He got off the raft to help Zuko drag it, and more and more land came into view. It was much larger than any of the land they'd found before. As they got closer, features of the landscape came out. The land was greener than Earth Kingdom Lands had been, but not the same deep green of the Fire Nation. The land was also covered in foothills.

When they finally reached the shore, Tai wrote in the sand that he needed rest. Zuko to needed to rest, but he would keep watch because they had no clue what to expect from this new land. Not only that, but the sensation of being on land was so strange and the world was rocking underneath him. As Tai began drifting off, a high-pitched grating sound came from their raft startling Zuko and waking Tai…

AN: What, Who will they find on the new land? What is the high-pitched screeching that wakes poor Tai from his nap? Is coming from mice or something only slightly alluded to in one line the prequel story, and made so insignificant that even if someone were to read the prequel story, they would probably miss it? How will the story have more dialog if one of the major characters is mute? Will Tai ever learn to firebend? Will Zuko overcome his generally nihilistic view of life? Find out next time (Ok some of those questions will take more time to answer.) Just as a note to keep myself accountable, the next chapter will be from Tai's POV. Review Please!


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

 **AN:** Just as a side note, Tai refers to Zuko as Lee.

 _What is that horrible noise? I just want to sleep._ By the time Tai sat up, the screeching was over, and Lee was looking at the raft for the source. _I should just go back to sleep._ And the familiar darkness swept over him.

0o0

The power of the sunrise woke Tai as it had every other morning, only something was wrong. _Am I dead?_ Tai wondered, _everything is so still…_ Then he remembered, _We Landed yesterday! On real, big, Land!_ When Tai got up from his sleeping mat, he noticed two things: he was covered in tiny red swells, _mosquitos! Mosquitos are the worst._ The second thing he noticed was that Lee was sleeping propped up with his back to the ocean. It was strange because Tai almost never saw Lee sleep, he went to sleep later than Tai, and got up earlier. _He must be really tired_ , Tai concluded but a shadow of doubt crossed his mind, _or dead…_ Tai rushed over to where Lee was propped up, but before he could check for Lee's breathing, the same screeching from yesterday started causing Tai to nearly jump out of his skin. At the same time, Lee sprang to his feet, startled awake by the screeching. Lee seemed to find the source immediately. Tai's confusion mounted as Lee picked up the rock and dunked it in ocean water, and the screeching stopped immediately.

 _How is my rock making that noise?_ Tai thought. Lee had found Tai clutching a bag with the rock inside, and had decided that it must be of some importance, but Lee had never explained it. _Or I have forgotten_ , Tai thought bitterly. He may not have liked being mute, but he could deal with it. He hated forgetting things. He was never truly sure of what happened in the past. It was only small things, like what he ate for lunch an hour ago, or what Lee would try to teach him, but he still hated it.

Tai was jarred out his thoughts when Lee began speaking, "Tai, as you can clearly see… well hear, this is not an ordinary rock. What we have here is, well…" Lee paused but then went on, nearly whispering, "I think we have a dragon egg." Tai look at him dumbfounded, _How is that possible? I thought dragons were all dead, and how did it survive in the egg for so long?_ Tai had so many questions, but he had to choose carefully which ones he asked, because he could only write so many in the sand. He grabbed a stick from the raft and began scrawling his first question: When?

Lee looked at it and repeated, "When? When will it hatch, you mean?" Tai nodded. "I don't know… I never bothered learning about them because they were dead, and so my only knowledge of dragons comes from fire nation plays." Lee paused and frowned for a moment, "Although, I suspect that they hatch mostly on mornings, because they are firebenders of a sort." Tai nodded, what Lee said made sense.

Tai then wrote his next question in the sand: will it be dangerous? Lee repeated the question aloud, "Will it be dangerous? The short answer is yes and maybe no. Dragons are dangerous for sure, no matter who you are." Lee thought a moment, "However, I think it might be like the dillo-lion from the circus, if it grows up with a group of humans, it won't try and hurt them. But dragons are supposed to be much more intelligent than dillo-lions, some even say they're smarter than us. So we have to be careful.

The question and answer went on like this for about an hour while Lee worked on fixing the nets. Tai learned a lot about dragons and thought they were really cool, but he didn't know what they looked like, so he asked Lee to draw one in the sand. Lee chucked but obliged, drawing a snake but with wings. They looked so strange, like they were made up. After that, Lee decided they should cast the nets, then go out and explore the island a little. Casting the nets was easy enough, they waded out to where there was a little bit of current and anchored to sides. Lee wasn't actually sure if that would work, but he seemed happy enough with their set up.

When they got back to the beach, Lee took several sticks and drove them into the sand and explained that they pointed to where they set their nets. Lee took some of the dried fish they had and they set off.

Tai thought the land was very beautiful, more so than the desert parts of the Earth kingdom, but Tai missed the mountains he and Lee used to hide in. Here, there were just small hills that seemed to go on forever, like wrinkles in the green blanket of the earth. There were also very few trees here; Tai felt lonely. It was quieter than anywhere he could remember (even if he could only remember very little); no birds were chirping. It was like a dream that his brain had forgotten to fill in the details to.

By the time they had climbed the highest foothill, they both needed a rest. When they sat down Tai noticed something, a village, not too far off. He excitedly tapped Lee on the shoulder and pointed at the village. _Other people! We might see other people who don't mean to hurt us!_ Tai was excited, and though he didn't think about it much, he was often quite lonely.

Lee nodded and indicated he saw. After they had sufficiently rested(which wasn't long, the prospect of seeing other people had given the duo quite a bit of energy), they began making their way to the village. As they got closer, Zuko began telling Tai random rules. Like, stay with yogether at all times, be courteous, and be ready to run.

As they neared closer still, it became apparent that the village was no larger than a hundred people, but there were mighty walls. The town was in truth, the same size as the Governors home in New Ozai. The level of fortification clearly confused both Tai and Lee. _I wonder if this is a military outpost instead of a town? But that wouldn't make sense because the gates are open…_

When they got to the gate, they simply walked in. No guards were seen. It was indeed a town, people were milling around and took no notice. They wandered for several minutes, until they reached what was presumably the town square and market. On one side, there was a large wooden triangular building, and on the other was a small open air market. Lee apparently decided one of the shop keepers looked friendly enough and went up to one and began speaking,

"Hello, my nephew and I are lost travelers, could you tell us where we are?" The spice vender didn't seem to notice and continued to organize her spices.

Lee tried again, but louder, "Hello, ma'am, we are lost, could you tell us where we are?" the old vender looked up surprised.

Tai was shocked to see her face. The old lady was paler than anyone he had seen in his life! _Is she sick?_ He wondered but started noticing even stranger qualities. Her eyes looked like someone had pried them open and stitched them like that! Even stranger, her eyes were blue like that of an infant he once saw; it was downright bazar. Tai could tell that Lee was surprised by her appearance, but he hid it well. The lady reciprocated Tai's surprise. She said something quickly and Tai thought he had just missed it, but judging from the Look on Lee's face, he too was dumbfounded.

"What" was all Lee could say. The lady spoke again, for a longer period. Her words were strange, and the rise and fall of her voice was like music, be it harsh, however. And Lee clearly understood none of it. Lee looked at Tai for help but he just shrugged facing the same confusion. The Lady shoed them away, but as she did, and old man started shouting at them from one stand down. Soon there was an angry crowd of the strange pale, wide eyed people muttering in their strange song like language angrily. The old man seemed to egg them on and someone else in the crowd shouted. Soon the commotion drew what Tai assumed to be the leader of the town. He was a young man that radiated authority, and he had the same features as all the other townspeople. He was wearing all black, matching his black hair, and he had a strange necklace with a miniature of what Tai thought was a ship's mainmast.

The man spoke and the crowd immediately quiet. He turned to address Lee, speaking, but different that before. Now his words were like velvet, and with the rise and fall of his voice, Tai thought he might actually be singing. But it seemed like Lee clearly didn't understand them.

Tai and Lee stood in the center of the market uncomfortably for a moment more before Lee said rather sheepishly, "Well, it's clear that you guys can't talk to us, uh so I guess Tai and I will just leave…" Lee trailed off at the end sheepishly.

Lee grabbed Tai's shoulder and they began walking, and no one stopped them and they made it out of the city. They said nothing for ten minutes as they walked when Tai turned around to look back, he saw that the man in black was following them. Tai gently tapped Lee on the should and Lee simply nodded like he had notice the man.

After walking for about two and a half hours, they got back to where they were camped; luckily none of their stuff had disappeared. When they got back, Lee told Tai to hide the egg, and anything else he could before the man who had followed them arrived at their camp. Tai hid everything he could under the corner of the raft very hastily.

Minutes later, the strange man in black arrived. He carried a small bundle of cloth in one arm, and was cleanly dressed. The man said something as he strolled right up to camp. Neither Lee nor Tai understood the purpose of his following them here.

Lee began to speak, rather awkwardly and ineloquently, "Uh sir, with all due respect, you uh don't understand anything I'm saying. Why then are you here?" The man just looked at him. Lee tried again, "Look, we don't mean to cause trouble! I don't even know why I'm trying to talk to you! It's like asking Tai to sing!"

Tai giggled, or what would have been a giggle, but it just sounded like quick breathing. The man seeing Lee's agitation, held out the bundle of cloth, but seemed to change his mind and pulled it back in. He unwrapped it and there was bread inside. Tai looked hopefully at Lee. They hadn't had actual bread in months. The man took a small piece of the bread and ate it, and offered the rest to Lee. Lee seemed to think that it was safe and graciously took it. He tore off a chunk and gave it to Tai, and they both started eating.

The man watched them for a second, then started making hand motions. He pointed at his mouth, then jabbed his fingers at his sternum and said what Tai thought was " Entuno" He looked expectantly at Lee and Tai. Lee.

"I think he's trying to tell us his name is Antonio." Lee remarked, and Tai nodded. Lee pointed at the man and said, "Antonio." The man, Antonio, smiled, genuinely pleased, and pointed at his mouth, then at Lee. Lee, understanding, pointed at himself and said, "Lee." The man nodded and repeated his name. Then Lee pointed at Tai and said, "Tai." Antonio repeated Tai's name aloud too. Antonio stayed for about an hour, whereupon, he indicated he wanted Tai to speak, but Tai shook his head. This seemed to disturb the man, and he got up to leave. Antonio said a word that sounded something like a type of noodle he once had in the Earth kingdom, and began heading back.

"That was interesting." Lee remarked absentmindedly. Tai nodded in agreement. He then began writing in the sand and tugged at Lee's shoulder. Tai asked about the fish nets they set earlier, and Lee responded, "We can check them tomorrow morning, Antonio brought enough bread for today, and something tells me he is coming back. We should focus on making a shelter here for now." So the two what pieces of wood from the area that they could. There was a large boulder very close to where they landed and built a lean to with one the walls being the boulder as they had many times before as fugitives. Far from being done, they set up their things up under their partially completed shelter, and went to sleep.

The night passed and Tai had dreams of wide eyed people and bread. When morning came, they were awoken by the awful screeching from the egg, but it still did not hatch that morning. Then Tai and Lee went out to retrieve their nets from yesterday. There were quite a few bazar fish in their catch, but nothing they weren't willing to eat. They brought all the fish back and re-set the nets, satisfied with their catch. When they got back, they continued to work on their makeshift shelter, until Antonio arrived.

Antonio brought them bread like the previous day, but he didn't stay as long that day, clearly not as happy with the progress they were making. He and Lee now knew a lot of words, but it seemed to Tai that they could not describe anything abstract. Lee taught him about abstract concepts on the boat. Lee would make Tai write lists of concrete and abstract things. Tai understood some the abstract things and knew they were important. They were things like time, emotions, and the spirits. Tai wasn't sure he was comfortable about categorizing the spirits as abstract if they did exist, but he wasn't sure he believed in them. Everyone, even Lee, swore by their existence, but Tai had never even seen one! Lee claims that the great fire spirit was reasonable for fire bending.

As far as spirits and abstract communication, Tai wasn't sure. But Tai was sure he wanted to learn to fire bend. Lee had forbidden Tai from trying to fire bend while they were fugitives, and then once they were on the boat. Tai had seen the reason in not lighting fires on their wooden raft and had cooperated. But now, they were on land and he could finally learn to fire bend. So as Antonio was leaving, Tai began to scribble in the sand on the beach. Then He clapped to get Lee's attention.

Lee was distracted and looked up like he just remembered that Tai existed. He muttered something and wandered over to where Tai had written in the sand, and he read Tai's question aloud, "Teach me fire bending?" Lee thought for a few moments as Tai looked hopefully up at him. Then Lee began, "Alright, but you must not use fire bending when Antonio or anyone else is around. As far as we know, none of them are benders and shooting fire at them might cause some trouble." Tai nodded eager to start.

Lee began walking along the beach and motioned for Tai to follow. When they reached a large exposed boulder, Lee climbed it and sat down. Tai attempted to climb but was too short to reach the handholds Lee had used, so he got Lee's attention by clapping. Lee reached out an arm and pulled Tai up. Once they were situated, Lee explained how breath was the medium of fire. Fire was not breath, but fire could not exist without it. Through the breath, energy and will are channeled to create fire. In order to maintain fire, proper breathing must be achieved. As they meditated on their breath, Tai felt his insides transform. It felt as if every single drop of blood in his body was laced with an incredible amount of energy, but it had lain dormant until now. All of his body seemed to realized that in his blood was breath, and all his dormant energy could be channeled. The longer he meditated, the more he felt the area of each concentration of energy connect. Lee explained that these were chi pools, and that firebenders who could fully unblock their chi pools would achieve maximum potential. It was such an incredible feeling Tai decided he wanted to meditate every day for the rest of his life, just as Lee did every day.

Before he knew it, the sun was setting and he felt the energy inside of him dwindle. However it never came close to disappearing. It just didn't burn through his veins like a flood of lightning. He wondered if he would ever sleep again, but soon the lull of the night, and the rocking he still felt on land, days after arriving on shore, drew him to sleep.

o0o0o

This time, Tai was awake before the screeching started. The sunrise woke him just before the sun broke the horizon. The screeching began as soon as light was visible and it seemed louder than usual. _I hope this egg hatches soon_ Tai thought, irritated. _Although we might just get a creature that screeches all day._ As if on cue, the screeching stopped leaving only a deafening silence, quickly followed by the sound of cracking and tinkling, like glass breaking, but with less tone. _The egg is hatching!_

Tai rushed over to where he had hidden it. Lee was already there, staring with intense concentration and fascination. Soon a small leathery black head poked out, small intelligent green eyes gleaming. Then the rest of the egg split apart with a final dull _crack_ and the rest of the creature was visible. It was, Tai thought, like the dragon Lee had drawn him. Only, not. It wasn't long like a snake, but more like a small black lizard with wings. And ears…

After staring at the little lizard-thing for a moment, Tai looked at Lee. He had a dumbfound expression as he stared at the creature. It made a sound somewhere between a cat-shrew's mewl and a wolf-bat's cry and walked up to Tai. It could probably fit in on of Lee's hands or both of Tai's; it was really small.

"Maybe dragons come in different varieties?" Lee said dumbly to himself. It sure seemed to Tai like they did. The baby dragon hopped over to him and Tai reached down to pick it up. But just as his hands got near the small creature, it leapt and bit his thumb…

 **AN** : Yep. Sorry for the terrible cliffhanger… ok not really sorry. As you may or may not have guessed, the little dragon looks like everyone's favorite dragon, Chimuelo, just smaller. I realize this isn't the most interesting story, but frankly, exposition is important. If you (the readers) haven't realized, this new land that Lee *ahem* Zuko and Tai have landed on is an Italy of sorts (Roman fortified towns, musical accent, bread, white people, Antonio. Anyone? No ok L) . The next chapter (or the one after that…) will be weird but I quite like it. Please leave a review as long as its not excessively mean. I have pretty good ego so a hit here and there won't kill me, but an atom bomb might -_- A nice review does help me focus on the story though so feel free *hint*

Until next time,

Me.


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